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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [E3r]

AERE QUANDOQUE SALU
tem redimendam.

Sometimes money must be spent to purchase safety

Beaver biting off its own testicles which are eaten by hunting dogs.
[Click on image to enlarge]

Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [E3v]

Et pedibus segnis, tumida & propendulus alvo,
Hac tamen insidias effugit arte fiber.
Mordicus ipse sibi medicata virilia vellit,
Atque abiicit sese gnarus ob illa peti,
Huius ab exemplo disces non parcere rebus,
Et vitam ut redimas hostibus aera dare.[1]

Though slow of foot and with swollen belly hanging down, the beaver nonetheless escapes the ambush by this trick: it tears off with its teeth its testicles, which are full of a medicinal substance, and throws them aside, knowing that it is hunted for their sake. - From this creature’s example you will learn not to spare material things, and to give money to the enemy to buy your life.

Notes:

1.  This is based on Aesop, Fables 153, where the same moral is drawn. For the information about the beaver, see Pliny, Natural History 8.47.109; Isidore, Etymologiae (Origines) 12.2.21.

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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [L5v f72v]

EMBLEMA CX.

In eos qui supra vires quicquam
audent.

Those who venture on what is beyond their powers

Dum dormit, dulci recreat dum corpora somno
Sub picea, & clavam caeteraque arma tenet,
Alcyden Pygmaea manus[1] prosternere letho
Posse putat, vires non bene docta suas.
Excitus ipse, velut pulices, sic proterit hostem,
Et saevi implicitum pelle leonis[2] agit.

While Alceus’ descendant was sleeping, while he was refreshing his body with gentle slumber, beneath a spruce tree, keeping hold of his club and other weapons, a band of pygmies thought they could lay him low in death, not really grasping the limit of their powers. But he, waking up, crushed the foe like fleas, and carried them off, wrapped up in the fierce lion’s skin.

Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [L6r f73r]

Das CX.

Wider dise die wider ir vermügen dörf-
fen etwas anfahen.

Figure sleeping and being attacked by pygmies
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Dieweil da schlafft und ruht so süß
Under einr Thannen Hercules
Und helt bey sich sein Kolben groß
Mit andern Waffen ubermaß
Meinen die kleinen Zwergen schon
Sie wöllen in wol meistern thon
Wölln also bald in reiben auff
Bdenckt nit ir sterck der kleine hauff
Dann er auffgwegt sie zerknitst doch
Als werens nur gar kleine Flöch
Verwirrts und wickelts also eyn
Mit der grossen Löwen Haut seyn.

Notes:

1.  Hercules’ confrontation with the pygmies is described by Philostratus, Eikones 2.22.

2.  ‘the fierce lion’s skin’, the skin of the Nemean lion which Hercules always wore after slaying the beast (Emblem 17 [A67a017], Emblem 18 [A67a018]).

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